Barney Scout Mann is considered an elder statesman of the trail community. He’s been backpacking most of his life, is a triple-crowner, and has contributed to our iconic national trails through leadership positions at the Pacific Crest Trail Association, the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and the Partnership for the National Trails System. His Journeys North:…

Colin Fletcher was my first outdoor hero and perhaps also my first literary one. As I prepared for my long-distance backpacking trip at Philmont Scout Ranch, age 14, a scouting buddy confided that I must study The Complete Walker. It was the backpacking bible of the early 1970s. I was immediately taken by the cover…

My background is in technical writing with years of documenting software during my career, then blogging about personal finance during retirement. When I set out to write my memoir Rain and Fire in the Sky: Beyond Doubt on the Colorado Trail, I knew I could construct sentences efficiently, recount events precisely, and describe scenery accurately.…

AWOL on the Appalachian Trail. If Amazon reviews are an indication, David Miller’s AWOL on the Appalachian Trail may be the third-best selling trail memoir of all time, behind only Wild and A Walk in the Woods. Published in 2010 about a 2003 hike, Miller had a jump on many writing trail memoirs. And his…

On Trails. Robert Moor is an eloquent essayist who thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2009, a rainy year. With the mountain vistas obscured by mist, Moor began pondering the connections under his feet. Eventually he traveled the world to learn about all kinds of trails and produced a New York Times bestseller and winner of…

Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home. Heather Anderson, trail name “Anish,” went from being an overweight bookworm as a child to one of the most accomplished extreme endurance athletes in the world. She finished the 2600-mile Pacific Crest Trail in the astounding self-supported Fastest Known Time, male or female, of 60 days, 17 hours, 12 minutes.…

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker. Derek Lugo is a young Black man making the rounds of the New York City comedy scene when a job ends unexpectedly. What to do with all that free time? He had read Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, but never seriously considered hiking the Appalachian Trail. Until now. A self-described…

Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: An Adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail. Carrot Quinn, confused about her identity and her future, decides to take a hike. On the Pacific Crest Trail. A minimalist at heart, she soon embraces her sparse, ultralight trail life. Quinn is not an expert at the start of her hike, but…

Cheryl Strayed’s landmark memoir Wild, subtitled “From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail,” published in March 2012, is one of the few trail memoirs to break out to a general audience and the only one by a woman. In May of that year Oprah Winfrey made it the first selection in her re-launched…